A federal judge has demanded that Texas send an attorney in person to his courtroom in the long-running dispute about a floating anti-immigrant barrier along the Mexico border.
As part of Operation Lone Star, which Abbott launched in March 2021, Texas deployed thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and placed razor wire along the border. Simultaneously, large floating buoys, separated by circular saw-like sheets of metal, have been put in the Rio Grande in an attempt to stop river crossings. The U.S. government is suing Texas to have the barrier removed.
Judge David Ezra, a federal judge based in Texas, ruled on Tuesday that the state should send a high-ranking lawyer in person to the hearing and not try to attend remotely. His order followed a hearing on Tuesday in which a lawyer for Texas appeared by video screen.
“It is clear to this Court that the State of Texas misunderstands the substance of the status conference held on August 6, 2024 in this matter.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a border security news conference at the Texas State Capitol on June 08, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Abbott is fighting to retain floating barriers along the Mexican border.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
“To avoid any misunderstanding going forward, it is hereby ORDERED that the above entitled and numbered case is set for a continued in person STATUS CONFERENCE before Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra in Courtroom 2, on the Fourth Floor of the United States Courthouse, 501 West Fifth Street, Austin, TX, on Wednesday, August 07, 2024 at 10:00 AM,” Ezra’s order states.
“It is requested that Lanora C. Pettit, Principal Deputy Solicitor General be present at the scheduled conference.”
Pettit is an attorney in the Texas Attorney General’s office.
“In the event that lead counsel for the United States have returned to Washington DC, it is acceptable that a local representative from the United States Attorney’s Office be present,” he added.
Newsweek sought email comment from the Texas Attorney General’s office on Wednesday.
In a major victory for the state of Texas, a federal court on July 30 dealt a blow to the Biden administration’s attempt to remove the floating barrier placed in the Rio Grande, along the Mexico border.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court should not have granted a preliminary injunction to the federal government, forcing Texas to remove the barrier.
The Biden administration had argued that the barrier was a violation of the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA), through which the federal government maintains navigable waterways.
U.S. Circuit Judge Don R. Willett, along with eight other Republican-appointed judges, found that the stretch of river was “not historically navigable.”
Reacting to the decision, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the floating barriers would remain in place.
“Biden tried to remove them. I fought to keep them in the water. And that is exactly where they will stay,” he wrote.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also welcomed the ruling.
“The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in Texas’s favor, finding that the federal district court abused its discretion when it ordered Texas to remove the buoys floating in the Rio Grande that prevent aliens from attempting a dangerous river crossing to enter America illegally.”
“The buoys can remain in the river. I will continue to defend Texas’s right to protect its border from illegal immigration!” he wrote on X.